The Australian Youth Delegation is made up of twenty one Australians aged between 17 – 27 from across Australia. Profiles for each delegate can be found below.

The team: Amanda, Anna, Charlotte, Declan, Ellen, Gabby, George, Joel, Josh, Layce, Lucy, Mike, Natasha, Nick, Osman, Ramya, Rohan, Sadhie, Sam, Sheena, Wendy & Braden.

Amanda

Name: Amanda McKenzie

Home: VICTORIA

Bio: Amanda McKenzie established ASCENT, the Australian Climate Change Education Network in 2006, an independent non-profit organisation aiming to bring accurate information about climate change to the average person. She has also played a key role in the development of the international youth climate movement. Amanda attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali as a member of the Australian Government’s delegation as an official advisor and youth representative. She has represented Australian youth in discussions with Federal Ministers, State Government representatives, Professor Ross Garnaut and business and industry representatives from across the world. In 2007 Amanda completed an Arts/Law degree completing a law honours thesis on emissions trading with first class honours.

Anna

Name: Anna Rose

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Bio: Anna Rose was born in Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal export port. Anna was National Environment Officer for the Australian National Union of Students in 2005 and is past National Convenor of the Australian Student Environment Network. In 2005 Anna was a youth representative to the United Nations Kyoto Protocol negotiations in Montreal and in 2007 was a youth delegate to the UN Secretary General’s Meeting on Climate Change in New York, and was one of the youngest delegates to the 2020 Summit. Anna spent seven months working with the progressive movement in the United States, including volunteering with the Energy Action Coalition and on the Obama campaign in the New Hampshire Primary. Anna is also a member of the Environment Minister’s Advisory Council on Environmental Education. She holds a Fellowship from the International Youth Foundation, is part of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, and holds an Australian Leadership Award from Australian-Davos connection.

Charlie

Name: Charlotte Wood

Home: AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Vision: Climate change truly is the challenge of our time. It is the issue upon which everything else that we’ve ever faced in the history of humankind rests – because without a planet, there is nothing. It is for this reason that I am devoting my life to solving the climate crisis.

We can all be a part of the solution, especially young people. We have the most to lose and yet more and more I see that we are the ones uniting to tackle this challenge head-on. I used to think we didn’t care but now I see I was so very wrong. I can now see young people all across Australia standing up and assuming leadership – doing what it takes to get power-holders to recognise the enormity of this situation and in many cases bypassing government in order to simply get the job done.

Declan Kuch

Ellen

Name: Ellen Sandell

Home: VICTORIA

Bio: Ellen Sandell is the Switched On Schools Coordinator for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. In 2007 she was part of the first Australian Youth Delegation to the UNFCCC climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, and she will be travelling to Poland for the next UN meeting this December. She was previously the Environment Officer in the University of Melbourne Student Union, helping the University to significantly reduce its environmental impact. Ellen is the founder of the award-winning Leadership in Environmental Action Program, an innovative environmental leadership conference for high school students, held each year in September. In November 2007, Ellen was selected as the keynote speaker at the Melbourne Walk Against Warming, where 50,000 people heard her speak about how young people can combat climate change. Ellen has helped re-introduce numbats and other mammals to the Australian bush, been a research scientist at the CSIRO and has two degrees (Science and Arts) from the University of Melbourne. Originally from Mildura, on the Murray River, Ellen is passionate about environmental issues and helping young people make change on climate change.

Gabby Howlett

Home: WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Vision: Over the past 2 years I have travelled to India and Cambodia. I believe that future efforts to deal with climate change and its implications are very much about mitigation, but just as much, if not more about adaptation. Finding ways to develop third world sectors to bring them out of poverty, in a way that is least harmful to the environment, whilst building the areas resilience to natural disasters, is what I personal believe to be important.

I think the Australian Youth can and should focus their energies on becoming examples for future youth that are beginning to emerge, adults that refuse to change and other youth in similar situations. I have seen the power that youth have within schools, and in front of governments and I would like to help them become the positive voice that people are going to listen and respond to. The youth that I have worked with have a positive way of addressing the situation and are ready to take action, but are continuously let down by a somewhat unsupportive government that surrounds them. However I have also seen that when youth who feel that same way come together to support each other instead, can achieve most of the results they set out to.

George

Name: George Leipnik

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Vision: Despite being schooled in traditional Economics, I am opposed to the ingrained idea that adapting to climate change will limit our Economic growth and lead to lower standards of living with higher prices. I firmly believe in the opportunities that will open up was we re-align our way of thinking and our economy.

I look forward to a future where both governments and individual consumers reward innovation without demanding profit. Now is the time for consumers to put a real value on their natural environment, including the effects of climate change in market decisions – this will bring about a halt in the negative externalities that result from our current production and consumption.

Joel

Name: Joel Dignam

Home: SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Bio: Joel Dignam is an accomplished eighteen year old heralding from the dynamic of Adelaide. When asked what he wants to be when (if) he grows up, Joel’s answer is always the same: happy. But he wouldn’t be too happy in a catastrophically changed climate, and that’s why he does what he does. Joel is currently studying Sustainable Energy Engineering at Adelaide, where he is also soon to be Environment Officer on the Student Representative Council. Additionally, he is active in South Australia’s grassroots Climate Emergency Action Network, which co-ordinated the National Climate Emergency in Adelaide. While he sees political action as one means of addressing the climate emergency, he feels that people, young ones especially, must go beyond that to rise up and demand a safe future. When he’s not being green, he acts as Red Team Leader in Adelaide Capture The Flag, a sporting group he co-founded, and of which he is currently president. He enjoys cold rolls immensely, loathes TV, plays piano, clarinet and ukulele, and, every few months when he has a scrap of spare time, also enjoys writing and cycling.

Josh Wyndham-Kidd

Josh was an Australian Youth Delegate to last year’s United Nations climate talks in Poznań, Poland, where he gave the closing speech to a plenary session of the negotiations. He has represented the AYCC at meetings with Ministers, Members of Parliament and Australian climate negotiators, and has co-authored submissions to the United Nations and the federal government on forestry policy issues.

Josh has represented Australian youth to an international television network, domestic radio networks and news journals. He was a panellist at Power Shift 2009, Australia’s first national youth climate summit, and has presented on climate change issues to public forums at North Sydney Council and the University of Sydney, and to candidates for the Bradfield by-election, 2009. He worked on the Australian Gala Premiere of The Age of Stupid, the major climate film released this year worldwide. He has completed two years of a B.A. (Languages), majoring in International Relations, French, and Arabic, and is a presenter and former Treasurer of the Sydney University radio station, SURGfm.

Josh is a keen sponge for trivia and was a contestant on Temptation, the Channel 9 quiz show, at the age of 15. Since then he’s focussed all his attention on taking part in solving the climate crisis – and, now, on brushing up on his Danish. Hej hej!

Lucy

Name: Lucy

Home: VICTORIA

Bio: Lucy started studying Arts at The University of Melbourne in 2007, and soon began focusing on history and politics. She studied environment politics in 2008, and for the first time was really confronted with the implications of climate change. After finding out about the AYCC she decided to get more involved, and was Victorian University recruitment co-ordinator for Power Shift in 2009. Lucy also completed a volunteer internship at The Wilderness Society, working on their Green Carbon campaign. In this role she developed articles for publication which highlighted the importance of natural forests in climate change mitigation efforts. She is currently involved in organising the Melbourne University Youth Decide event.

Mike

Name: Michael Clay

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Vision:  Having witnessed first-hand the challenges that developing countries face on the rocky road to development, I am interested in all projects that will facilitate their development in a sustainable, lasting fashion. Climate change, while effecting all nations globally, will hit developing countries much worse, and any fragile progress made in the last 50 years could be wiped away without a global agreement that allows developing countries their right to develop and provide their citizens with the education and health they deserve.

Australian Youth have a large part to play in the forging of consensus and the mobilising of opinion. As we will be the beneficiaries or Victims of today’s actions, it is in our interest to build up the foundation for a world we want to live in. Today, our strength lies in the democratising power of the internet and new media technologies, allowing the mobilisation of diverse, geographically isolated peoples and groups towards a shared goal. Apathy may be rife, but it is not productive, it is entropic by nature. The power of the mobilised, combined with our ability to harness new media technologies will acts as force multipliers to make our voices heard in the halls of power.

Tash

Name: Natasha Lay
Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Bio: After having worked in event management for 4 years, Tash sought to use her knowledge and skills for a worthy cause. She became a climate activist when she realised that 30°C was far too hot for a winter’s day in Sydney and began working with the AYCC for PowerShift 2009. She is active in her local community of Liverpool in South-West Sydney, having chaired the Liverpool Youth Council and been awarded the Liverpool City Young Citizen of the Year 2008. She has previously volunteered with World Youth Day, the UTS Peer Network, Vision Generation NSW and the Oaktree Foundation. She currently sits on a number of committees, including the Liverpool Districts Neighbourhood Centres Association Management Committee, the Liverpool Community and Recreation Panel, the Premier’s Council for Women, and the NSW Youth Week Young Person’s Advisory Committee. Currently in her 3rd year of an Arts (Communications in Social Inquiry) and Law combined degree at the University of Technology, Sydney, Tash is focusing her studies on environmental law and hopes that future generations will be reading about the Gen Y movement that changed climate change. She is passionate about empowering young people to reach their full potential and looks forward to working in social and environmental policy in the

Nick

Name: Nick Mueller

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Bio: Nick Mueller has been involved in climate awareness campaigning for the last five years in various groups including the Australian Student Environment Network and convening on-campus organisations at Macquarie University. At Macquarie, Nick was Student Member on University Council and was involved in the foundation of the  process towards making the University a ’sustainable’ institution. In addition to a variety of climate initiatives, he loves music and plays in an ‘environmental’ bluegrass band. Nick is currently completing post-graduate studies in Psychology. Nick’s passion is using his background in mental health and environmental awareness to support young people to make the change needed for our planet in a personally sustainable way.

Osman Faruqi

Ramya

Name: Ramya Krishnan

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Bio: 18 years old, Ramya is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Laws, majoring in Political Economy, at the University of Sydney. At the end of 2007, after graduating from high school, she pursued a voluntary internship at Greenpeace Australia Pacific where she worked on the Climate Change Action and Whales teams, and got a taste for working with passionate people determined to change the world. She hasn’t looked back since.In 2008 Ramya was elected onto the executive of the Young UNIFEM Australia Sydney Chapter and was part of the Young UNIFEM National Schools Outreach working group. In 2009 she took part in AYCC’s Youth Climate Leadership Program and was the NSW Recruitment Director for Power Shift. At Power Shift 2009 she was part of an epic flash-dance against climate change, dancing and ‘shunting’ (a highly technical piece of choreography involving pelvic thrusting!) her way down the steps of the Sydney Opera House with over 1000 young people. She now has no doubt that young people, their creativity, energy and determination are the answer to fighting climate change.

Rohan

Name: Rohan Porteous

Home: NORTHERN TERRITORY

Vision: What we need to be doing as the youth of Australia is move the issue beyond ‘green cool’; creating big shifts in ways of thinking and acting rather than simple turns in tokenistic trends. We are the ambassadors of the future and can make it what we want.

We don’t want governments who set pedestrian targets, lowering them whenever they get the chance, but fearlessly

Proactive leaders who aim high and finish higher. We don’t want to raise ‘an awareness’ but a create a complete understanding of the reality and the inspiration to do something about it; the determination to set strong, forward-thinking goals and the ability to achieve them.

Many people see climate change as purely ecological – a far too cold and scientific notion. This issue is clearly the largest humanitarian crises we’ve ever faced. Climate change should no longer be about words but well informed, audacious action.

Sadhie

Name: Sadhie Abayasekara

Home: NEW SOUTH WALES

Vision: The focus of my climate advocacy is building a truly participatory movement to resolve climate change. A better world is not simply one which has lower global emissions; in my vision, we must arrive at sustainability through just and inclusive political processes. As I argued in my Honours thesis, international climate negotiations must be restructured to privilege those who are marginalised in decision-making. Australian youth must use their privilege to support AOSIS countries, for example, by providing a digest of policy developments, translating complex UN processes and echoing their demands in youth statements.

Sam

Name: Sam Millar

Home: VICTORIA

Vision: My passion for creating optimistic social change in the face of climate change stems from my passion and involvement with environmental leadership and network groups. I come from a rural background, living in a small town in the foothills of the Australian Alps. Over the past five years, I have noticed major environmental changes in this region including lack of water, changing seasonal patterns and increased risk of bushfire. In February this year, I fought the Black Saturday bushfires that killed hundreds of people in Victoria, including two people not far from where I was positioned to fight the fire.

I consider it my responsibility to fight for the future of the environment and humanity through working with governments and organizations while encouraging human populations to live in a sustainable manner. As a global community we have the potential and technologies to move to a low carbon future. Australian in particular, has the ability to move to renewable energy resources, green jobs, sustainable methods of transport, water conservation and the innovation of new technologies. The youth of the world can be the driving force for this change, because if this change doesn’t occur then it’s our generation’s future that is in jeopardy.

Sheena

Name: Sheena Watt

Home: VICTORIA

Bio: Sheena Watt is 25, and is a full time student at RMIT (Bachelor of Business Management) and a full time employee at the Department of Sustainability and Environment (Public Land Division). She is an active member of the Victorian Indigenous youth community, the student community and the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Sheena founded the Indigenous Students Network and worked with the National Union of Students as Indigenous Students Officer. In this role she initiated the National Indigenous Students Conference, was a member of the consultation panel to the Bradley Review into Higher Education. Sheena also contributed to the renewal of AYAC – Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and has spoken at many student conferences. In her role at the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Sheena is a Victorian Government Representative on the National Biodiversity Strategy Indigenous Working Group, is a member of the Indigenous steering committee for the development of the Western Sustainable Water Strategy. Sheena has represented the  Department at the National Native Title Conference, and the Victorian Climate Change Summit. Sheena is a member of the Victorian Indigenous Youth Advisory Council, and a  member of the City of Melbourne Youth Safety Committee. Sheena is also actively involved in the National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia (NIYMA). She was a delegate to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Gathering, was selected for a special forum on the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Representative Body, was part of the youth workshop into the development of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, and has undertaken  Diplomacy Training Program through the University of New South Wales Law Faculty.

Braden Hill

Perth, Western Australia

I am a 23 year old Wardandi man from Nyungar country in the South-West of Western Australia. I am about to graduate with a double degree, Bachelor in Education (Secondary) and Bachelor of Arts (Australian Indigenous Studies). Climate change is a tangible reality for Australian society and particularly for Nyungar peoples, as the transforming climate and its detrimental impact on Nyungar boodjar (country) has its genesis in the economic philosophies contrary to Indigenous knowledges, belief systems and practices. For the past two years I have worked as a casual tutor at the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre, working with enabling course students and helping them get prepared to commence undergraduate studies at Murdoch University. I have guest lectured on Indigenous Issues at Murdoch University for both the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre and the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy. I have also been involved in major research projects through Murdoch University’s Centre for Social and Community Research involving looking at environmental management in the South-West of Western Australia and the potential for Indigenous knowledges to inform fundamental aspects of land and natural resource management practices within this region. Subsequent to attaining employment as a casual Research Assistant at Murdoch University, I have undertaken employment as a Research Officer on an Australian Research Council project investigating the Indigenous history of Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) and the opportunity to develop this iconic location into a symbol of active reconciliation. As a student I am currently the Murdoch University Guild of Student Indigenous Representative and also currently hold office in the National Union of Students as the State Indigenous Representative for Western Australia. I was selected, along with 100 other Indigenous Australians, to be involved in the final consultation phase for the establishing of a new National Indigenous Representative Body in Adelaide earlier this year.